Hi everyone, I am just checking in to see what people are using as spacing between there passenger cars?
I have a MTH Amtrak set with 5 passenger cars and one Baggage car, I plan on having 072 as my min. and 080 as my max. curves.
I am thinning of re adjusting the length of my kadee's, also I almost for got that all passenger cars have diaphragms. Please give input. Thanks in advance.
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I use a general rule of having the knuckle of the Kadee #805 coupler protrude just barely past the outer edge of the diaphragm, on each heavyweight passenger care. Works OK for me, but I also suggest you experiment based on your layout.
That's a good rule, would you think the same for 740's? Do you know how much space that is between the diaphragms?
Mike,
I put mine on the tightest radius curve and let the diaphragms touch or crush each other a little. I measure to the center of the gap between the two coupler mounts and I get the correct distance to mount the kadee. No guess work.
Check the radius of any turnouts as well. And be careful of any S curves created by the turnouts.
Good luck,
Ron H
"And be careful of any S curves created by the turnouts."
Especially this!!
Also, transition into curves is a big help.
Ron and Rex, thank you for the information. I have no layout right now, all I have is a plan. So I thought while I have the time I would do the Kadee adjustment, but if I can till I get a layout I guess I will find something else to do! LOL
Mike, in the past couple of months someone posted a method of removing the claw from coupler arm mounted on the truck and mounting either a Kadee box or 3D printed box.
If you mount the coupler to the truck rather than the body you can operate on very tight curves and draw the cars closer together than body mount couplers would allow. You could actually install scale diaphrams and bring the couplers as close to the car as they would be if body mounted and still traverse 042 curves.
Pete
Mike, these will easily negotiate 042. You can have them touch but it might be a good idea to apply plastic buffer plates so they will slide against each other easier.
As for S curves, these are back to back 042 switches.
Pete
WOW Pete, that is just amazing! I didn't know they could be so close!
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